Flytxt offers students insight into world of artificial intelligence

TechnoparkToday.com>> Intelligent customer engagement firm Flytxt has been passing on its expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning to students from across Kerala at Drishti, CET’s annual tech fest.

The Dutch company, which has office in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, organised a one-day workshop on “Underpinning Machine Learning and Data Science,” at the College of Engineering, on Saturday. The workshop was open for students from all over Kerala and was held as part of Drishti. About 100 students from various years and branches attended. The aim of the workshop was to arm students with a fundamental knowledge of artificial intelligence, particularly for students who aren’t offered courses on AI in their respective universities.

Speakers at the workshop, Mr. Amit Meher and Mr. Utpal Sikdar from Flytxt R&D team used real-world examples to illustrate the complexities in coding or formula construction at the back-end of AI systems. As more companies and networks start incorporating AI-based models to maintain day-to-day business, there is a corresponding increase in demand for coders in the industry.

The speakers showed the young engineers a number of challenges that a coder could face while creating rules for AI models, sparking interest by illustrating how such problems can be faced using algorithms written for Flipkart or Amazon logistics.

The workshop kicked off with an introduction into the world of AI, including the fundamentals as a number of the students were just starting out on their studies.

The event went on to look at the subtle differences between machine learning, deep learning and AI. The students also got a glimpse of different machine learning algorithms, such as regression, classification, clustering and their application in real world scenarios such as stock market prediction, spam email detection, cancer prediction, loan defaulter prediction etc.

And attendees were kept on their toes with practical illustrations on machine leaning and decision making, including a particularly memorable simulation comparing programming to a blindfolded man finding his way down a hill.

Utpal and Amit highlighted the practical aspects of machine learning using Flytxt’s own flagship product, NEON-dX, which can process huge volumes of customer data to analyse customer preferences and tailor products and offers accordingly. It can help in creating and validating models and custom prototyping. The students were intrigued by the complex layers of formulae that go into designing deep learning models that decipher probabilistic calculations from large datasets.

This was the fourth such workshop organised by Flytxt in Kerala following events at National Institute of Technology in Calicut, LBS Institute of Technology’ and Mar Baselios College, Thiruvananthapuram.